Lyon in crisis after crushing defeat

AFP, PARIS: Lyon completed a miserable week by slumping to a third straight defeat as they were thumped 4-2 at home by a resurgent Montpellier in Ligue 1 on Friday.
Unheralded Chadian striker Casimir Ninga was the hero for Montpellier with a brace in between a Maxime Gonalons own goal and a Souleymane Camara strike for the visitors, who ran riot against shambolic Lyon defending at the Stade de Gerland.
Alexandre Lacazette and Rachid Ghezzal netted for the home side, but this was a worrying performance from Hubert Fournier’s team, who were lucky not to lose by a much wider margin.
Soundly beaten 3-0 at Nice a week ago, last season’s Ligue 1 runners-up were sent packing from the Champions League with a 2-1 home loss to Gent on Tuesday, and this was their fourth loss in five outings in November.
Lyon remain in second place for now, but are 13 points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain and the five sides below them are all within three points so they risk plummeting down the table by Sunday evening.
“We had a difficult European campaign in which we made too many errors and now an early goal from my mistake put us in trouble,” captain Gonalons told beIN Sports.
“We just need to keep working. Without a great performance by Antho (Lopes) we would have lost much more heavily.
“We are a big club and everything the people who were here before us built we must not throw away. We need to be men, not behave like boys.”
The contrast with the good times of last season, when OL hammered Montpellier 5-1 home and away, were stark at a Gerland where both ends of the ground were left empty as a punishment for trouble after the recent derby win against Saint-Etienne and loud jeers rung out from the reduced crowd at full-time.
After a dreadful start to the campaign, 2012 champions Montpellier were looking to extend a five-game unbeaten run in the league and score a third consecutive victory.

Lyon in crisis after crushing defeat

AFP, PARIS: Lyon completed a miserable week by slumping to a third straight defeat as they were thumped 4-2 at home by a resurgent Montpellier in Ligue 1 on Friday. Unheralded Chadian striker Casimir Ninga was the hero for Montpellier with a brace in between a Maxime Gonalons own goal and a Souleymane Camara strike for the visitors, who ran riot against shambolic Lyon defending at the Stade de Gerland. Alexandre Lacazette and Rachid Ghezzal netted for the home side, but this was a worrying performance from Hubert Fourniers team, who were lucky not to lose by a much wider margin. Soundly beaten 3-0 at Nice a week ago, last seasons Ligue 1 runners-up were sent packing from the Champions League with a 2-1 home loss to Gent on Tuesday, and this was their fourth loss in five outings in November. Lyon remain in second place for now, but are 13 points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain and the five sides below them are all within three points so they risk plummeting down the table by Sunday evening. We had a difficult European campaign in which we made too many errors and now an early goal from my mistake put us in trouble, captain Gonalons told beIN Sports. We just need to keep working. Without a great performance by Antho (Lopes) we would have lost much more heavily. We are a big club and everything the people who were here before us built we must not throw away. We need to be men, not behave like boys. The contrast with the good times of last season, when OL hammered Montpellier 5-1 home and away, were stark at a Gerland where both ends of the ground were left empty as a punishment for trouble after the recent derby win against Saint-Etienne and loud jeers rung out from the reduced crowd at full-time. After a dreadful start to the campaign, 2012 champions Montpellier were looking to extend a five-game unbeaten run in the league and score a third consecutive victory.